Lethal injection
Lethal injection
Is lethal injection the humane alternative?
Execution by lethal injection takes much longer from start to finish than any other method, typically 30 - 45 minutes depending on the execution protocol and ease or otherwise of locating a vein. In the U.K. a hanging took around 15 seconds to carry out in the later part of the 20th century. For the majority of this time the condemned person is fully aware of what is happening to them and able to experience their execution. They know that they will be dead at the end of it and the fear of suffering (particularly in front of an audience) and of the unknown is strong in most of us. It is difficult to see therefore how it can be considered more humane, as the prisoner is subjected to far more mental anguish over a longer period.
It is fair to say that injection is much less dramatic than the electric chair or hanging and probably easier for the staff and witnesses as it looks more like a surgical procedure than an execution. But does it cause the prisoner less suffering overall?
When all goes well, the only physical pain is the insertion of the catheters. If the person's veins are easy to find this can be done in a minute or so. The catheters are connected to the saline drip and the prisoner is wheeled into the execution chamber where they are in full view of the witnesses and journalists. After they have made their final statement the injection of the lethal chemicals can begin and they may pass almost instantly from full consciousness into unconsciousness or they may feel themselves becoming drowsy and know that they are beginning to die.
In modern hanging they are alive one second and unconscious the next (if everything goes to plan). It is unlikely that they feel themselves slipping into death.
Not everyone is of the opinion that death by lethal injection is painless - Dr. Edward Brunner, chairman of the Department of Anaesthesia at North-western University Medical School, submitted an affidavit on behalf of death row inmates in Illinois in which he states that lethal injection "create[s] the substantial risk that prisoners will suffocate or suffer excruciating pain during the three chemical injections but will be prevented by the paralytic agent from communicating their distress." It is notable also that Albert Pierrepoint, who was one of Britain's most prolific hangmen and who witnessed an early lethal injection execution considered that the process was "sadistic" mainly due to the length of time it took to render the prisoner unconscious.
In the minds of the American public and of jurors in capital cases the perception of lethal injection is of a clean, clinical and painless end. 71% of those responding to my 2001 survey considered injection to be the least cruel form of execution.
This perception is a great advantage to the state because the public are much more willing to accept execution in this form and jurors more willing to convict and pass the death sentence. The media interest in the eventual execution is also diminished. Texas which has carried out around a third of all post 1977 executions finds that there is now very little interest in them unless the criminal is particularly notorious and thus avoids much of the protest that attends other methods.
There was intense media interest in the three hangings in Washington and Delaware and the two shootings in Utah because these methods were perceived as old fashioned and barbaric.
Utah may well abandon shooting in favour of injection not because either execution was in any way botched but because they were perceived as being gruesome. It is probable that there will be only a very few if any more hangings in Washington for the same reason.
One wonders, however, if injection is as much of a deterrent as hanging or the electric chair, to would be criminals, or whether they feel it is a "soft option"? This is an important point because if the state is going to take the life of a person surely it should seek to produce the maximum deterrence from doing so within the realms of a providing the prisoner with a quick and pain free death. Interestingly in those states that allow the prisoner the choice of execution method, not everyone does choose injection.
The problems with injection.
One of the main problems with lethal injection is the aqueous pressure in the executee's veins. Veins have an internal pressure (blood pressure) which has to be overcome to allow injection into them. A doctor, when giving a normal intravenous (IV) injection, has to equal and then slightly exceed this pressure. If he produces a pressure that is too great he will rupture the vein. The doctor accomplishes this through his training, fingertip dexterity and experience built up from giving repeated injections. He feels the pressure in the vein against the top of the plunger of the syringe. In the case of a lethal injection the volume of the of fluid required to fill the plumbing of the IV tubes running between the executioner's cubicle and the prisoner means that the syringes must be of 50 - 60 cc capacity. Syringes of this size are too big to give any real feel to the person administering the injection. Thus too much pressure can easily be applied and a rupture of the vein may occur. This can happen in the case of giving a non lethal injection into the good healthy veins in a normal person.
It is not unusual for the condemned prisoner to be a former intravenous drug abuser, with delicate, collapsed veins that can stand far less overpressure. This is also true of people who are insulin injecting diabetics. When a person with normal veins is frightened their veins contract and become hard to find.
Before insertion of the catheters a good vein must be located. It is not unusual for an "cutdown operation" to have to be performed to find a usable (not necessarily suitable) vein. This entails a minor surgical procedure on the arm, leg or groin carried out under local anaesthetic, using a sub-cutaneously injected dose of Xylocaine or similar local anaesthetic, administered by a medical technician. The public are seldom made aware of this and the witnesses would not typically see any evidence of it during the execution.
To produce a quick and painless death it is vital that the chemicals are injected into a vein, rather of an artery. Veins carry blood to the heart and arteries away from the heart. The path of the chemicals (particularly the potassium chloride) should be via the quickest route to the heart so as not to prolong the execution. If an artery is used by mistake, instead of a vein, the blood carrying the chemicals has to go the "long way round" significantly increasing the time taken to stop the heart. The distinction between a vein and an artery is not an easy one to make. Even a doctor can make a mistake! It is clear from reading reports of executions that the time between commencing the injection and certifying death varies a great deal.
Problematic injections....
.....Link to whole report...
Is lethal injection the humane alternative?
Execution by lethal injection takes much longer from start to finish than any other method, typically 30 - 45 minutes depending on the execution protocol and ease or otherwise of locating a vein. In the U.K. a hanging took around 15 seconds to carry out in the later part of the 20th century. For the majority of this time the condemned person is fully aware of what is happening to them and able to experience their execution. They know that they will be dead at the end of it and the fear of suffering (particularly in front of an audience) and of the unknown is strong in most of us. It is difficult to see therefore how it can be considered more humane, as the prisoner is subjected to far more mental anguish over a longer period.
It is fair to say that injection is much less dramatic than the electric chair or hanging and probably easier for the staff and witnesses as it looks more like a surgical procedure than an execution. But does it cause the prisoner less suffering overall?
When all goes well, the only physical pain is the insertion of the catheters. If the person's veins are easy to find this can be done in a minute or so. The catheters are connected to the saline drip and the prisoner is wheeled into the execution chamber where they are in full view of the witnesses and journalists. After they have made their final statement the injection of the lethal chemicals can begin and they may pass almost instantly from full consciousness into unconsciousness or they may feel themselves becoming drowsy and know that they are beginning to die.
In modern hanging they are alive one second and unconscious the next (if everything goes to plan). It is unlikely that they feel themselves slipping into death.
Not everyone is of the opinion that death by lethal injection is painless - Dr. Edward Brunner, chairman of the Department of Anaesthesia at North-western University Medical School, submitted an affidavit on behalf of death row inmates in Illinois in which he states that lethal injection "create[s] the substantial risk that prisoners will suffocate or suffer excruciating pain during the three chemical injections but will be prevented by the paralytic agent from communicating their distress." It is notable also that Albert Pierrepoint, who was one of Britain's most prolific hangmen and who witnessed an early lethal injection execution considered that the process was "sadistic" mainly due to the length of time it took to render the prisoner unconscious.
In the minds of the American public and of jurors in capital cases the perception of lethal injection is of a clean, clinical and painless end. 71% of those responding to my 2001 survey considered injection to be the least cruel form of execution.
This perception is a great advantage to the state because the public are much more willing to accept execution in this form and jurors more willing to convict and pass the death sentence. The media interest in the eventual execution is also diminished. Texas which has carried out around a third of all post 1977 executions finds that there is now very little interest in them unless the criminal is particularly notorious and thus avoids much of the protest that attends other methods.
There was intense media interest in the three hangings in Washington and Delaware and the two shootings in Utah because these methods were perceived as old fashioned and barbaric.
Utah may well abandon shooting in favour of injection not because either execution was in any way botched but because they were perceived as being gruesome. It is probable that there will be only a very few if any more hangings in Washington for the same reason.
One wonders, however, if injection is as much of a deterrent as hanging or the electric chair, to would be criminals, or whether they feel it is a "soft option"? This is an important point because if the state is going to take the life of a person surely it should seek to produce the maximum deterrence from doing so within the realms of a providing the prisoner with a quick and pain free death. Interestingly in those states that allow the prisoner the choice of execution method, not everyone does choose injection.
The problems with injection.
One of the main problems with lethal injection is the aqueous pressure in the executee's veins. Veins have an internal pressure (blood pressure) which has to be overcome to allow injection into them. A doctor, when giving a normal intravenous (IV) injection, has to equal and then slightly exceed this pressure. If he produces a pressure that is too great he will rupture the vein. The doctor accomplishes this through his training, fingertip dexterity and experience built up from giving repeated injections. He feels the pressure in the vein against the top of the plunger of the syringe. In the case of a lethal injection the volume of the of fluid required to fill the plumbing of the IV tubes running between the executioner's cubicle and the prisoner means that the syringes must be of 50 - 60 cc capacity. Syringes of this size are too big to give any real feel to the person administering the injection. Thus too much pressure can easily be applied and a rupture of the vein may occur. This can happen in the case of giving a non lethal injection into the good healthy veins in a normal person.
It is not unusual for the condemned prisoner to be a former intravenous drug abuser, with delicate, collapsed veins that can stand far less overpressure. This is also true of people who are insulin injecting diabetics. When a person with normal veins is frightened their veins contract and become hard to find.
Before insertion of the catheters a good vein must be located. It is not unusual for an "cutdown operation" to have to be performed to find a usable (not necessarily suitable) vein. This entails a minor surgical procedure on the arm, leg or groin carried out under local anaesthetic, using a sub-cutaneously injected dose of Xylocaine or similar local anaesthetic, administered by a medical technician. The public are seldom made aware of this and the witnesses would not typically see any evidence of it during the execution.
To produce a quick and painless death it is vital that the chemicals are injected into a vein, rather of an artery. Veins carry blood to the heart and arteries away from the heart. The path of the chemicals (particularly the potassium chloride) should be via the quickest route to the heart so as not to prolong the execution. If an artery is used by mistake, instead of a vein, the blood carrying the chemicals has to go the "long way round" significantly increasing the time taken to stop the heart. The distinction between a vein and an artery is not an easy one to make. Even a doctor can make a mistake! It is clear from reading reports of executions that the time between commencing the injection and certifying death varies a great deal.
Problematic injections....
.....Link to whole report...
posted by A. J. Franklin @ 12:58
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